LampizatOr Baltic 3

[Vangelis]

There's 3 PDF documents on the top of the Baltic 3 page, with the very logical url:

BALTIC 4 DAC | lampizator

www.lampizatorpoland.com

Not sure why the Batlic 1 hasn't been removed from this page.

Thanks for the link. I see the gain Output level is : 2 Vpp (low gain) or 6 Vpp (hi gain) @0dB. It does not show the balanced output spec. I would imagine that the balanced output is double? My Amber 3 is 3 Vpp (hi gain). If the Baltic 3‘ s balanced XLR output doubles as normal, that a whopping 12 Vpp ( high gain).

 

[Vangelis]

Baltic 3 is arrived

It took a few days longer, as Lukasz offered to make a silver color scheme, which fits to my Audionet Stern Preamp.
As standard option, you can order the Baltic 3 top plate in many different versions, but matching the Audionet Stern means,
to customize the front as well.

And thanx to Lukasz and his team, they have done a great job, the Baltic 3 fits nicely to the Audionet Stern on the next shelf .

I heard the Baltic 3 with the standard tubes, coming the Baltic 3, first impression is very nice!

But the better is the better and part of the Lampizator fun, the tube rolling

Currently playing:

Emission labs 274, special Lampizator selection
Psvane CV181T
Telefunken ECC82

This set of tubes will make some more hours, seem to blend very nice with the Audionet Stern/Heisenberg sound

(picture with standard tubes)

View attachment 75124

I’m working to get my Baltic 3 on order. I would like a full silver color scheme. Apparently silver is an up grade paint finish on the top chassis. In what ways is your front plate different from the stock silverplate?

 

[shakti]

I’m working to get my Baltic 3 on order. I would like a full silver color scheme. Apparently silver is an up grade paint finish on the top chassis. In what ways is your front plate different from the stock silverplate?

I paid a extra fee to get the Baltic3 Top Chassis and Face Plate in a silver, matching my Audionet Stern.

 

[Vangelis]

I paid a extra fee to get the Baltic3 Top Chassis and Face Plate in a silver, matching my Audionet Stern.

My Amber 3 silver front is leans more towards a pewter gray silver versus my integrated amplifier. This is why I’m wondering if there’s a different silver option front.

 

[Nikko]

+1 for the Baltic3. I have had a lot of fun tube rolling and believe me when I tell you that NOS tubes yield massive sound quality improvements over the tubes that ship from the factory. It's like having a whole new DAC and the tubes come at a reasonable cost. You can also order (for a bit more cost) a B3 with integrated pre-amp and volume control. It allowed me to remove my old pre-amp from the chain of reproduction and my B3 now drives a Boulder power amp via balanced cables directly. Everything sounds wonderful!

Oh, and I also have Focal speakers (kind of). They are the old JM Labs Mini Utopia.

 

[HungarianPal]

My Amber 3 silver front is leans more towards a pewter gray silver versus my integrated amplifier. This is why I’m wondering if there’s a different silver option front.View attachment 79004View attachment 79005View attachment 79005

Beautiful setup and room treatment. I can see that your sub is behind the Focal stand. I would think that those low frequency waves affect your stand. Aren't they "in the line of fire" in this way?

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

I can only agree that tube rolling has opened up a new world for me with this DAC, and especially NOS and vintage tubes being the definitive icing on the cake here. I can appreciate the simplicity of buying new tubes, you know what you get and it's just a click away to order. With these old ones you can never really know, but so far I feel that I have been very lucky and found great sounding tubes. It's a different and very rewarding feeling to hunt down and find tubes that seems interesting.

I got these French babies La Radiotechnique 12au7 (from 1958 they say) a few days ago, I will let them play for a while and compare closer to my previous/current favorite Adzam, but I think I already prefer these actually. With the rest of my tubes in my system they simply sound great.

Here's a night shot of the complete gang and my (current) favorite lineup: La Raditechnique 12au7, Tung-Sol VT-99 and GEC U52 in action. The placement of the DAC is not optimal, but I will get this sorted eventually.

It's been a journey for the last 6 months, one of the more interesting 6 months in my hifi history for sure, from initial impression of plugging the B3 in and listening for the first time, it was great already then, but 6 months later after trying different tubes in all positions it's nothing but spectacular. Meanwhile I've also made quite some upgrades to my streaming source and network to give the DAC optimal basis to stand on. USB and networking re-clocking should not be forgotten about, there's still room for improvement here with all DAC's I'd say.

 

[Vangelis]

Beautiful setup and room treatment. I can see that your sub is behind the Focal stand. I would think that those low frequency waves affect your stand. Aren't they "in the line of fire" in this way?

The stands are Sound Anchors, they weigh a ton like a battering ram built by the Vikings,, filled with a combination of lead and sand. With these stands there is likely less bounce energy disruption to cabinet from the Rel woofer than a what a base driver would contribute from a larger freestanding Focal.

 

[Vangelis]

It's been a while so I thought I should provide an update for the Lampi tube roller lunatics club.

You may recall my last substantial post was on the topic of selecting the best match for my system in the 6SN7 spot. That award went to the red base RCAs, hands down.

Today has been spent rolling the back row on the Lampi Baltic 3. My dealer, Greg, kindly supplied three pairs to try, as shown in the photo.

First up were the RCA tubes. They offered a nice uplift in quality over the Telefunken ECC82-TK (12AU7) which I bought from SX Pro as a replacement for the factory supplied tubes. Mainly an improvement in clarity, like a veil has been lifted from the music.

Next came the Mullards, which come exquisitely packaged in their original boxes. They seem to drive my power amp better than the RCA tubes, and I think there is a tiny bit more detail and timbre from them. A more three dimensional rendition of the music.

The final set are the Mullards in the white boxes. They glow intensely when I turn the unit on, then they settle down. Whilst It's getting hard to tell the Mullards apart, I think I like these best. They have real presence compared to the others and more pronounced bass. Perhaps that's an artefact of detail? Who knows?

My only concern is that this last pair are marked "Mike" on the boxes. I hope he doesn't want them back ;-) You can see them installed on my B3 in my second picture and I think they might be impossible to remove!

In any event, this was all made possible by Greg Drygala who kindly loaned three sets for the back row and three sets for the 6SN7 position. I have now settled on the best of each and the DAC sounds glorious. A massive uplift from the factory supplied tubes. If you read this and own a B3, you owe it to yourself to get rollin'View attachment 78769View attachment 78770

I just placed my order for the Baltic 3. this is new to me and I have not admittedly read all the postings so I’m not clear on most of the tube rolling. Could you tell me which tubes have been your current favorite choice for each of the three positions.

 

[christoph]

I just placed my order for the Baltic 3. this is new to me and I have not admittedly read all the postings so I’m not clear on most of the tube rolling. Could you tell me which tubes have been your current favorite choice for each of the three positions.

Congrats on the B3

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

I just placed my order for the Baltic 3. this is new to me and I have not admittedly read all the postings so I’m not clear on most of the tube rolling. Could you tell me which tubes have been your current favorite choice for each of the three positions.

Congrats! You will not be disapointed.

I'm no expert at this myself, but to me, at first, the whole NOS/vintage tube thing seemed like a big mess, I could read about tubes that seemed interesting but then were impossible to find, or how should I know which one to get, there were so many models of the same tube produced in different year, different factory, labeled by different brand, fakes and bad sellers and so on. And yes, thinking about it, it really IS a big mess. But, it's also quite fun and addictive, I guess you just need to start dipping your toes in the hot water and test some tubes, compare and see what you like better. I'd recommend starting with the 6SN7 (and compatible) tubes as they are likely to make the biggest difference. There are many tube threads, both here and in other forums. Reading about tubes online, even if filtering through the hype, doesn't tell you if you like the tube or how it sounds in your system, but it can give you an idea and if it could be something for you and if it catches your interest to try.

 

[christoph]

Congrats! You will not be disapointed.

I'm no expert at this myself, but to me, at first, the whole NOS/vintage tube thing seemed like a big mess, I could read about tubes that seemed interesting but then were impossible to find, or how should I know which one to get, there were so many models of the same tube produced in different year, different factory, labeled by different brand, fakes and bad sellers and so on. And yes, thinking about it, it really IS a big mess. But, it's also quite fun and addictive, I guess you just need to start dipping your toes in the hot water and test some tubes, compare and see what you like better. I'd recommend starting with the 6SN7 (and compatible) tubes as they are likely to make the biggest difference. There are many tube threads, both here and in other forums. Reading about tubes online, even if filtering through the hype, doesn't tell you if you like the tube or how it sounds in your system, but it can give you an idea and if it could be something for you and if it catches your interest to try.

Excellent posting

 

[Nikko]

I just placed my order for the Baltic 3. this is new to me and I have not admittedly read all the postings so I’m not clear on most of the tube rolling. Could you tell me which tubes have been your current favorite choice for each of the three positions.

Hi Vangelis

From my posts earlier in this thread, you will see that I have settled on:

- Psvane Acme 5U4G rectifier (available new)
- 2x RCA red base 5691 in the 6SN7 position (NOS)
- 2x Mullard ECC82 output tubes (NOS)

You have ordered a superb DAC but the factory-supplied tubes only hint at its potential. As others have suggested, rolling the 6SN7 tubes will have the greatest impact. As an alternative to the RCA tubes, I really liked the Sylvania 6SN7GTB tubes (NOS readily available from Ebay) but also the Psvane CV181-T (available new). I also tried the VT99s and they were very, very good (but not as good as the RCAs). You need to use a high quality adapter with the VT99s and they put the cost up to the point where you can just buy the RCAs (if you can find them) for the same money.

I hope you really enjoy your purchase when it arrives, and have some NOS tubes ready to go!

Nikko

 

[christoph]

Psvane Acme 5U4G rectifier (available new)

Have you compared the ACME 5U4G to the ACME 274B?
And if yes, can you elaborate some more?

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

I think the point I was trying to make is that everyone has different ideas and personal preferences how things should sound and I also think it's worth reminding ourselves that everyones experience is theirs and theirs only, and in their setup. I'm trying to be careful to say that one tube or one brand is better than the other, because it can be a very different experience, and again it varies depending on year of manufactering or what factory they were produced in, the condition in general and so on. For example I have both Sylvania VT-99 and Tung-Sol VT-99, I strongly preferred the latter (even though the Sylvania's were more than double the price for me), on the other hand I like my Sylvania 6SN7W metal base from the 1940's much more than the military Tung-Sol 6SN7WGT from 1959.

Either way it's a lot of fun, more so than I could imagine actually...

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

These are two interesting tube threads in which I learned a lot myself.

The Reference 6SN7 Thread

- Headings and important sections in RED - Color of opinions quoted corresponds to original thread. 6SN7 variants: [* = definitely a safe 6SN7 substitute] ALWAYS ASK YOUR AMP MANUFACTURER FIRST BEFORE SWAPPING TUBE TYPES!!! 6SN7GT* - First designation of the 6SN7 tube type. ‘G’ =...

www.head-fi.org

Dubstep Girl's Massive 5AR4/5R4/5U4G Rectifier Review/Comparison! (Rectifer Tube Rolling thread)

Dubstep Girl's Massive 5AR4/5R4/5U4G Rectifier Review/Comparison! I have been wanting to create this thread for quite some time now, since I often receive PM's and questions asking for advice on tube rolling. I also have noticed that a general 5U4G/Rectifer tube rolling thread...

www.head-fi.org

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

And this one...

Shootout of Nos 6sn7 tubes

I will have shootout between TS BGRP, RCA vt231, KR vt231, Syl vt231, Raytheon vt 231 and "Bad boy" next weekend. If I get MELZ 6N8S 6SN7 Metal Base next week, then I will also include it in shootout RCA5691, Psavne Acme 300B, Psavne Acme 805 are also being used in Line Magnetic 508...

www.whatsbestforum.com

And then there's of course the Lampi tube rolling threads, maybe in particular the Lampizator GA TRP thread has most similarities with B3.

LampizatOr Golden Atlantic + TRP

Last weekend I had a pleasure with several good and dear friends to hear at mine and at @wisnon place new reincarnation of LampizatOr Golden Atlantic Plus TRP where TRP stands for Tube Rollers Paradise. Where this name came from - actually the catch is that as output tubes this one uses pentode...

www.whatsbestforum.com

 

[Nikko]

Have you compared the ACME 5U4G to the ACME 274B?
And if yes, can you elaborate some more?

My apologies. What I actually have installed is the Psvane Acme 274B (as supplied by my dealer, Greg). I only compared it to the Russian rectifier supplied from the factory. I found that the Psvane tube brought more drive to the music and perhaps a tiny amount more detail.

Nikko

 

[Golum]

Just to add some ingredients to the soup - I got an info from few good buddies with stock "blue tennis balls and Russian recti" that they start to sing properly after a very extended burn in time so maybe for the sake of fun give them another go...

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

Just to add some ingredients to the soup - I got an info from few good buddies with stock "blue tennis balls and Russian recti" that they start to sing properly after a very extended burn in time so maybe for the sake of fun give them another go...

I agree, I don't think the "blue tennis balls" are bad stock tubes at all and some tubes indeed need time to open up. Sometimes it's difficult to have the patience though as you want to try all tubes immediately...